Dream big, write easily: a guide to writing a 'career goals essay'

Essay paper writing

Academic writing

6446

26th Jul 2018

Training at the university is just the first step on the way to professional self-realization. Students have to make considerable efforts to meet the deadlines and perform all kinds of academic works qualitatively. Only strong motivation is able to maintain their high performance. Therefore, young people are often asked to write an essay on personal and career goals. Some of them prefer to use a cheap assignment writing service, but a majority wants to try their best to succeed in writing themselves. Such tasks allow to fully understand the own desires and ambitions. If you clearly realize what result should be achieved, it will be much easier to move in a chosen direction.

The concept of career goals

Let's consider in more detail the process of setting personal goals for a business career. According to the experts' definition, career goals primarily relate to a personal development. High posts and salary should not be in the foreground. They only embody the success in the public understanding, whether these factors correspond to it in reality or not. There are many incompetent and ineffective leaders who act really badly. These are employees whose level of personal and professional progress is lower than the position held.

Writing the essay on career development, you should remember that business goals are the reasons for which a person wants to get a certain profession, job, position, and place in the organizational hierarchy. It’s important to understand how they will help to realize deeper ideas and dreams. It’s useful to draw a structured "goal tree" that includes the final and intermediate stages.

As an example, some of these common items could be mentioned in your career goals essay outline:

to engage in a type of activity which is appropriate for self-esteem and provides moral satisfaction;

to get a position for developing the available skills;

to have a creative job;

to get a position that allows to have a lot of free time;

to work by profession;

to achieve a certain degree of independence;

to have a job which is well paid or allows to receive additional incomes simultaneously;

to have a position enabling you to continue active learning, etc.

Each of these goals can be final or intermediate, depending on the personal preferences of the individual. Intermediate goals are called tasks in management theory. There is a classification of tasks which help in business growth:

factors corresponding to self-esteem;

tasks developing a range of opportunities;

factors stimulating self-development;

tasks set on your own or by leaders and mentors.

Naturally, all these concepts are not specific. In your goal setting essay, they should be expressed in the form of concrete ideas: to pass certain professional training, to find a better job, to create your own business. The working situation determines the degree of goals achievement. Tasks and people who set them can change under the influence of the environment.

Career stages to consider before writing an essay about career goals

Choosing goals for a career and achieving them is not an instantaneous process. It is intended for a long period of time, like most management methods. Every stage of a business career corresponds to its goals:

At the stage of adaptation, the main task is a self-affirmation in profession and at a workplace. The central point is a desire to prove one's competence and to adopt the experience of the mentor. This phase should be described in detail in career objective essay for graduate school. Your first work will be successful due to a well thought out plan of action.

At the stage of formation, it is necessary to work independently and to be useful to the firm. The employee seeks to prove that he deserves administrative and qualification promotion more than other colleagues, that he continues to work on career development.

At the stage of maturity, the worker is an experienced performer. It is difficult to replace him. The process of professional growth continues. New fields of activity are being mastered. The employee seeks to take a managerial position and gain a foothold in it, to start educating young people. At the same time, home, coziness, interests, and forms of activity not related to work begin to play an important role in his life.

At the stage of a late career, the center of attention moves to the global interests of the firm or even beyond. A person seeks to convey the accumulated experience, trains a successor. However, the most important goal for such employee is to prepare himself for life at retirement.

A great skill is the ability to foresee all or at least most of these goals at the moment of the initial career planning in order not to set tasks that you can't cope with. It may seem impossible to know all the future until retirement. First, many students can’t understand how to write a career essay. They have to solve so many problems in the present. There is simply no time to think about life after 5-10 years. Therefore, the importance of such academic works for the personal growth of young people is undeniable.

Individual career planning

Individual planning of a business career usually includes a number of steps:

Evaluation of desires and opportunities to achieve high professional status within a particular organization.

Formulation of personal career goals.

Development of strategies, plans, and behavior aimed at achieving the stated goals.

Of course, it is difficult to talk about the distant future within the walls of the university. Career development essay is only an approximate plan designed to inspire you to study good in the present. It is necessary to periodically re-evaluate the goals, based on monitoring of achievements and emerging information about yourself, internal and non-organizational opportunities.

Questions that you should ask yourself to write professional goals essay

If you still do not understand how to write a scholarship essay about career goals, we recommend asking yourself a series of questions listed below. Pictures of future life will begin to appear in your head. Turn on the imagination and feel like you already have all qualities of a person you would like to become. Bright portrait of your future version will create strong incentives for successful studies.

Consider not only career and monetary issues. Work influences all spheres of life. It’s also worth paying attention to physical and moral health, social adaptation. Each modern person has three areas which take all his time: work (professional responsibilities, earning money), family (household duties) and leisure (rest free from other compulsory activities). Each individual determines the allocation of time between these spheres, prioritizes them in his own way. Quite often this depends on the age and life stage.

Use the following questions:

Do I have a clear picture of my work and its goals?

Does my work help me in achieving other life goals?

What are my tasks for development and progress in professional sphere?

What kind of work do I want to do during next 10 years?

Do I feel excitement and motivation?

What motivates me now? And what will motivate me after 5 years?

What are the strengths and weaknesses of my motivation?

What is my economic situation?

Do I have a personal budget? Do I adhere to its framework?

How many debts do I have? Will I get a loan if necessary?

What are my needs for financing and capital allocation in the closest years?

What measures can I apply to improve my economic situation, if necessary?

What is my general physical form?

Do I have time for regular recreational sports?

Do I sleep enough?

Do I eat healthy food?

What is my body mass?

In what quantities do I consume alcohol?

Do I take care of my body?

What measures can I take to improve my physical condition?

Am I sincerely interested in the opinions of other people?

Do I care about other people's concerns and problems?

Does my opinion interest others?

Do I impose my thoughts and opinions on others?

Am I able to listen?

Do I strive to develop people with whom I communicate?

How do I take care of friendships?

How can I develop my relationships?

Do I constantly develop myself?

Do I regularly read weekly publications, professional magazines, literary works? Do I follow the news of the day through newspapers, radio, television?

Do I attend training events, meetings, conferences, special courses?

Do I have a personal development plan? How can I develop my motivation and state of mind?

Do I understand the meaning of the family?

What is my family situation? Will it change in the coming years and how? Do I spend enough time with my family?

What factors contribute to the achievement of my life goals, and which hinder this process?

What are the most critical points in achieving my life goals? What can I do in this regard?

What do I need to use to achieve my life goals: time, money, health, etc.? Am I ready to use them or do I need to change my goals?

Perhaps you are surprised that it's needed to think about sports and family while writing an essay about career goals. But agree, if you want to devote whole life to business, there is no sense to count on the abundance of free time.

If you plan to have a baby right after graduation or do not imagine your life without long tourist trips, these factors should be taken into account when choosing a job. Assess how important such things are in your value system. If you are not going to abandon them, searching for suitable working schedule and field of activity should be among the first professional tasks.

The same concerns questions about communication, ability to listen and support surrounding people. Persons who do not like to communicate and have introvert temperament may be quickly disappointed by the position of sales manager. If you are one of them, independent activities involving a lot of analytical or even creative work may suit you more. So start moving in this direction right now.

Formulation of goals for writing a goal setting essay

At the next stage of creating the career research essay outline, you will formulate personal tasks and activity plans that contribute to the achievement of life goals. An approximate example is presented in the table below.

The goal

Measures taken for the realization of the task

The time spent

Monitoring of the event implementation

Improvement of health and physical condition

Improvement of moral motivation and mental state

Development of social interaction, improvement of family life, friendly relations and hobbies

Development of professional sphere

Improvement of material condition

Ethical development

The lack of specific goals is a common error, a manifestation of a passive attitude towards own life and professional growth. But in order to effectively develop a career, one must learn to set specific tasks and achieve them, or at least to use emerging situations in his own interests.

At the present time, organizations are increasingly involved in the process of individual career planning through providing students with information about vacant positions, job requirements and ratings, the methodology for assessing business and personal qualities, and so on.

In addition, experts have developed special exercises which help to understand one's own expectations and hopes at any moment of time (not only at the beginning of the career). It's recommended to use them independently. We invite you to get acquainted with an algorithm which helps to easily visualize and comprehend the career paths and prospects. It’s a powerful tool for your career goals and objectives essay.

Draw a horizontal line that depicts past, present and future of the career. Mark the place where you are at the moment.

Determine the events that gave you a genuine sense of satisfaction and self-expression. They will relate to the left part of the line which represents the past.

Analyze these events and determine the specific factors that caused such feelings. See if any particular trend has emerged, whether you succeed when acted alone or together with other people.

The right part of the line represents the future. Identify career-related events from which a sense of genuine self-expression and satisfaction is expected. You should imagine these factors as clearly as possible at the moment. If a person is able to strive only ‘to get my first job’ or ‘to achieve the first promotion’, then most likely his expectations are flawed. Identify the levels that you need to go through to realize career goals and the timing of their passage.

After these events associated with the future career are identified, they must be ranked from the most to the least important in terms of expected satisfaction.

Return to point 3 and rank the events mentioned there from the highest to the lowest in terms of the actual sense of satisfaction which was received. Compare two obtained lists. Don’t they contradict each other? Do you expect that the future will be the same or qualitatively different from the past? If you are waiting for the radical changes, the question arises whether you were quite realistic before in expectations about the satisfaction that future events in the field of career (education) can bring?

Discuss the results with the people you trust, whose opinions you appreciate.

Direct planning of a business promotion and preparation of personal schedule which may be described in career goals essay consist of the following steps:

Identify the ultimate desired goal of a business career and the possible sequence of jobs on the way to needed post.

Find reliable sources of information about suitable workplaces.

Analyze the proposed jobs, compare the sectors and areas of employment, types of companies, performed functions, etc.

Find out what you can offer to the employer by assessing own abilities, opportunities, needs, desired salary.

Determine what industry and type of work have requirements which are close to you at the moment and will be suitable for the future.

Compile a career schedule taking into account the time necessary for promotion.

Perhaps after a while, you will have to adjust a plan by comparing the desired picture with the real life, observing the progress of other professionals, varying the final goal, taking into account the new job offers, changing opportunities and requests of the labor market.

Try to be in the right place at the right time. Participate in internships, a student practice. Some companies invite young people to work on a part-time basis. So you will be able to establish useful business contacts without any harm to education.

Self-evaluation from the career point of view

Before writing an essay about career choice, you should pass the preparatory stage associated with the collection and analysis of information. First of all, we are talking about self-assessment and primary professional orientation.

For any individual, a future work path should begin with self-esteem. Various methods are used which largely duplicate the professional selection: testing and interviewing, performance of control tasks and works, analysis of socioeconomic situations, etc.

Self-analysis also includes independent assessment and consideration of personal traits, a prognosis of behavior in critical situations, an evaluation of the external environment (surrounding people and processes, society as a whole), own possibilities, personal limitations, etc. While compiling scholarship essay outlines, each person should carry out these activities independently. But in some cases, it's reasonable to resort to the help of professionals.

The sense of self-esteem is to obtain the most reliable information about:

physical, mental qualities of the individual;

available and required level of general education and vocational training;

motivation;

opportunities available on the labor market;

competitiveness in comparison with other candidates striving for career advancement in the chosen field of activity;

Self-analysis should be conducted both at the moment of writing the professional goals essay and during career movement to existing plans.

For example, the state of health may vary for different age groups. The choice of work is narrowed with deterioration in physical condition. Because of this, the initial goals are adjusted.

The professional potential is considered in the sociology of labor. It determines the opportunities and effectiveness of participation in economic activity, includes health, morality, creativity, education, professionalism. Other researchers identify the following components of the labor potential: qualification, physiological, creative, communicative, moral, leadership and development abilities.

Each professional goals essay sample is unique due to the features of the author. In psychology, the structure of the personality usually includes abilities, temperament, character, volitional qualities, emotions, motivation, and social standards. Let’s consider these terms in more detail:

Abilities are understood as individually stable human qualities that determine the success in various types of activities.

Temperament and character determine the person's reactions to other people and social circumstances.

Volitional qualities include the special personal properties that affect a desire to achieve the set goals.

Emotions and motivation are accordingly experiences and incentives for certain activity.

Social standards - beliefs and attitudes of people.

Thus, the personal qualities subject to self-assessment for the purposes of career management may be:

mental (memory, thinking, perception, emotion);

psychological (character, type of temperament);

intellectual (level of self-development and intelligence);

physical (state and prospects of health, the presence of innate talents);

moral (own system of values, ethical and cultural norms, rules and restrictions, their relation to the generally accepted morality).

You may ask how to write about career goals if not everything depends on you and the future is full of surprises. In addition to personal qualities, it’s worth assessing real opportunities for entering a professional labor market, among which you can specify:

professional factors (general and special skills, education, experience, business qualities);

Of great importance is the formation of knowledge about own advantages and disadvantages. Self-assessment is a complex conclusion about whether a person proceeds to his goals adequately or a certain adjustment of this movement is required. For example, if a student decides that marketing and trading suit him more than finance, this estimate will help to determine what knowledge he needs to get, in which organization it is best to work, what goods or services he will offer.

In short, correct self-esteem involves knowing yourself, identifying strong and weak sides, developing measures to eliminate shortcomings and to take advantage of them.

There are various methods of self-evaluation: self-testing (soliloquy), testing, behavior in control situations, business games, etc. Before writing the scholarship essay on educational and career goals, you can use some special literature on testing or services of specialists in vocational guidance organizations, psychological consultations.

The main problem of self-esteem is the quality of its results. Almost always, due to psychological reasons, it is inadequate: overpriced or understated. One should strive to minimize distortions. Otherwise, the analysis based on the defective information will not lead to the desired result.

Professional orientation and selection of the profession

When learning how to write a career goals essay, you must, first of all, decide what activity is most suitable for you. Universities give students general knowledge. After graduation, many young people do not understand what they really want to do, what their job responsibilities will be. There can be several specialties within one profession, which are understood as the type of employment, the totality of specific knowledge and skills. For example, a profession is an economist and a specialty is banking.

The Scheme used by specialists allows to describe any profession based on several characteristics: goals, tools, and means of work, a degree of problematic labor situations, socio-psychological and emotional-volitional parameters.

Goals of labor

One of the following kinds of activities can be described in your career goal essay for college:

Gnostic. It implies not the creation of a new product but the evaluation of any already existing thing (or its individual parameters and characteristics): works of art, human behavior, etc. A person discerns, evaluates, and analyzes something.

The transformation of a product, human relations, state of health, and information with the aim of changing, improving, refining, organization, streamlining, influence, impact, processing, movement, maintenance.

Creating. The goal of work involves a development of a new product that did not exist before, inventing something, searching for a new variant, result, or sample.

Tools and means of labor

The content of your educational goals essay also depends on what kind of labor tools you will work with. There are two categories.

The mistake of many students is that they describe rather high ambitions in their career goals scholarship essay but can't translate them into reality. You must reasonably assess the unpredictability in the chosen field of activity in order to be 100% sure that you will cope with difficult tasks. There are the following degrees of problematic labor situations:

Low. The work is clearly defined by rules, instructions. There are practically no new, unexpected tasks.

Average. The activities are quite clearly defined, but sometimes situations arise which require making the new, non-standard solutions.

High. There are often new, complex tasks that require creative activity and an unconventional approach.

Socio-psychological parameters

After you have conducted a self-assessment while preparing for writing a plans after graduation essay, it's worth choosing the socio-psychological conditions that suit you the most.

1. The collectivity of the labor process can be:

low (individual labor);

high (collective labor).

2. The degree of independence in the organization of work. In accordance with this parameter, the employee can be:

the executor;

the organizer of his own activities;

the organizer of other people's work.

3. Peculiarities of labor interaction. Professional contacts are characterized by three parameters:

Based on this scheme, anyone can choose the profession appropriate to his expectations in order to describe it in goals after college essay.

Rules for writing the career aspirations essay

Since we are talking about academic paper, you should follow certain rules while writing it. Especially if this is the essay on career aspirations for MBA or any other serious aim, it should be duly structured and meet the general requirements and if it seems to you too difficult, you can always use MBA essay writing service.

How to choose the title for career goals essay?

If there is no list of career essay titles among which you may choose the most suitable, it is necessary to take into account the audience of readers. Options can be different: a teacher at the university, the committee, the literary community, an employer.

If an academic goals essay is written for submission to the teacher, consider what qualities will be evaluated. The chosen topic should help to show those abilities which examiner appreciates the most: originality, the ability to construct sentences logically, literacy, professional qualities, etc.

When choosing the topic from the proposed list, you should select the one in which you have certain knowledge, considerations or just strong interest.

If my career plan after graduation essays are focused on the employer, both the title and the content should reflect the nature of the author, his sincerity, uniqueness, humanity, and individuality.

Structure of the essay on personal and career goals

The order of writing is usually narrowed to three steps.

1. Introduction

Like any written work, MBA career goals essay has an introductory part. A well-written introduction awakes the interest and makes the examiner read the essay till the end. This part may contain the formulation of the problem and its essence, rhetorical question, quotation, etc. It is important to create a special emotional mood. Tell how career choice and achievement of professional goals are important for you.

It often happens that a person who has enough eloquence and the ability to express his thoughts on paper just can't start writing. Reflections on the first lines of the text may take a long time, which greatly complicates the creative work.

Use the free writing technique. Its essence is to write down all the thoughts which come to mind without editing them, not following the grammar, punctuation, style, etc. This is a great way to cope with the creative crisis and find an extraordinary idea.

It is important not to focus on the introduction. It can be written even after the main part. In this case, it is already clear what the essay is about.

2. The main part

You can bring different points of view on the topic under consideration, touch upon the history of the chosen profession. Usually, the main part consists of several sub-items. Each of them has three sections: thesis (proposition), justification (arguments used to prove the thesis), sub-conclusion (partial answer to the main question).

Arguments are judgments expressed in order to convince the reader of the certain point of view. These are different situations in life, the opinions of scientists, evidence, etc. The argument can be constructed in the following sequence:

Statement.

Explanation.

Example.

The final judgment.

It is necessary to explain why some field of activity was chosen and why you think that can carry out the tasks described in the short term and long term career goals essay.

3. Conclusion

All the justified conclusions for each thesis presented in the main part are combined here. Based on the given arguments, the reader should make sure that your professional intentions are correct. The purpose of the paper is re-introduced and a final conclusion is drawn.

If the goal of the introductory part is to interest the examiner, then final words are intended to add integrity to the overall picture and to leave the work in the reader's memory.

We hope that this instruction will help you write a really convincing work. For the greater understanding of requirements for such papers, it is recommended to consider the sample of career goals essay for graduate school which was approved by the teacher or employer.

Use the experience of other students, the above recommendations, own attitude to future and ideas about the professional life. We hope that your career will be successful not only on paper but also in reality. Good luck!

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